From Russia With Love
by G. Courfeyrac
Summary: Les amis de L'ABC are only just teenagers in 1815, so what happens when a soon to be leader finds a baby on the church steps. With him and Eponine caring like a mamon and papa, their daughter decides that they should love each other, but Marius and a revolution get in the way. The best laid plans of mice and men...
1. Chapter 1

**Hello everyone. So this is Niamh's story From Russia With Love. I will be posting the chapters and finishing the story with her notes and my own ideas! So, a bit about me. My name is Georgiana but everyone calls me G and Courf is my favourite out of the barricade boys. I'm also taking over Italia's Two Little Sweet Angels With Dirty Faces fanfic so I'll be posting that. Also if anyone wants to rp Les Mis with me, either pm me or add me on Kik and tell me you're from here. My Kik is GeorgianaScott (although I normally rp as gender swapped Les amis because I'm not too good at writing as a guy). Well that's enough about me! Please R and R.**

**Love you all**

**G xxx**

TH JUNE 1815

Enjolras looked up to the sun. It was hot for paris but the breeze on the bridge from the Seine was good. It was refreshing. He was going to meet with his group of friends- and Eponine. They had met the street urchin around a year ago, when she was only eleven, and the rest of them twelve.

He went to Notre Dame, he always loved the church. It was the only piece of art he seemed to like. Although early morning, the doors were not yet open, and yet there was a basket next to the door. Curious, Enjolras swept the golden curls out of his eyes and ran up them, knocking on the doors. No answer.

He picked up the basket and decided to take it to the secret entrance to the church that he was small enough to fit through. Then he heard it. Was the basket... Crying?

He shifted the thick woolen blankets to find a very hot, newly born child.

"Oh my Jesus Christ!" He yelled, almost dropping the baby altogether. "Um... What to do? To do..."

He didn't know. Without thinking. His feet took him to the elephant where they all met after discovering it was hollow. It was the amis hide out.

"JOLY! You in here?" Enjolras knew Joly was a fast learner and his father was a doctor and Joly had been working with him since he was about five. He could be a well trained medic now, if he wasn't 13.

The boy in question stared at Enjolras as he climbed inside the belly of the elephant.

"Ey! Whatcha got there Enjy?" Eponine crawled in afterwards. Her hair in its usual tangles.

"Its a..." He took a deep breath as he lost lots whilst running. " A-"

"BABY!" Eponine squealed as she took it out of the blankets. "Cute!"

"Eponine I don't think its well." Enjolras said, noting the baby had stopped crying and its small chest no longer rising.

"Quickly, give her to me." Joly ordered.

"Her?"

"Its a girl." Joly set to work trying to shock the child's heart back into working. "I'd say she's around three hours old."

Joly took a pan full of cold water and full on dunked the baby into it. Upon lifting it out, everyone held their breaths.

Crying.

They all exhaled.

Joly dried the baby and handed her to Eponine who held her expertly. She felt at home with a baby in her arms and had to deal with Gavroche, her younger brother when he was born.

"I was just walking up to Notre Dame and she was laying in a basket." Enjolras explained everything. "No mother to be found."

Marius hopped back into the elephant looking triumphant.

"I found some milk!" Marius handed Eponine the bottle. He touched her hand and her cheeks blushed slightly.

She fed the greedy baby who fell asleep in her arms.

"Where did she come from?" Grantaire said, staring at the girl in her bliss-filled slumber.

"We can't put her back on the streets can we?" Courfeyrac suggested. He was met with several glares. "Forget I said it."

"No, she is a poor defenceless child. No one deserves to be abandoned like that. She could've died." Combeferre said sternly.

"Cafe? Its cooler there." Prouvaire said. So they all went. "And I'm hungry."

"You're always hungry."

X

Evening had started to fall and all the amis had done was argue over the baby, who was soundly asleep still.

"Well who's she going to live with?"

"Me!" Enjolras and Eponine both chorused.

"You?" Eponine stood up.

"You live on the streets Eponine!" Enjolras told her as if she didn't know.

"What's that suppose to mean?" She crossed her arms over her chest protectively.

"Stop arguing!" Grantaire told them as the baby fell asleep in his arms. He set her down again in the basket.

"Right, first off, before we start deciding what the hell we're meant to do with her, she needs a name." Combeferre suggested.

"Well, I like Aimee." Enjolras said, crossing his arms over his chest.

"And I like Kate." Eponine mimicked him, taking a step towards him. He looked down at her as they tried to stare each other out.

The amis looked between them like a tennis match. Somehow, Enjolras had the right to be like a father to this child he had found, and Eponine had taken her mothering instincts and applied them. The two were children themselves and still managing to quarrel like parents.

"Why don't you just call her Cea then?" Grantaire rubbed his eyes, it was late and if they continued to shout, then she was going to wake up... Again.

They both looked as he had come up with the most random name ever. They tried to stare each other down.

"I like it." Eponine backed down first, but still a fight in her voice.

"Same here." Enjolras spat.

"Fine." Eponine spun on her heel and started to walk out.

"Fine." Enjolras yelled after her.

She paused at the newly named Cea crying again.

"I'll see to her." Enjolras said softly to Eponine who looked on edge.

"No, I will." She went to go and pick Cea up when Enjolras stood between her and the baby girl.

"No, go home Eponine. She'll be fine. I don't want your father being angry at you." She nodded her thanks and left.

Enjolras approached Cea and felt like this was natural. He reached down to her and held the girl close to his chest and rocked her.

"Look, there we go! Nothing to cry about. I'm here." He told her.

"Aw! He looks normal!" Lesgles giggled at the odd sight.

Cea had stopped crying and was now gurgling like a normal baby. She was cute. He huge blue eyes matched Enjolras' as they stared at him. He small fingers playing with his hair, reaching and poking his nose. She laughed. It was the cutest laugh he had ever heard.

"Why Cea, Grantaire?" He asked, as she started to drift off the sleep from his rocking motion.

"Oh! Because there's a C on the side of her blanket." Grantaire smiled, wondering over to Enjolras and Cea and stroking her soft cheek as she giggled in her sleep.


	2. Chapter 2

Eponine awoke early in the morning with a start. She heard crying. A baby.

She scampered out of bed and ran out into the street, pulling her cap back onto her mop of long dirty brown hair, and looked around for the source.

"Cea?" She ran around the corner, looking for the crying. This was the normal routine every morning. She knew the risk of taking Cea home with her so she didn't. But not having her girl beside her made her constantly paranoid.

She was running blindly, unaware that the crying had ceased and that her feet carried her to outside Enjolras' and the other students boarding houses for their schooling.

Yet she still shouted.

"CEA!"

Her fists banged on the harsh wooden doors as she desperately tried to get in.

"Hang on! I'm coming!" Enjolras opened the door in his nightshirt as Eponine was a blur past him as she hopped up the stairs and into his quarters.

"'Ponine, she's fine." Enjolras lent on the door way as Eponine sat on the end of his bed, staring into the basket on his chest that Cea was sleeping in.

The little girl stirred slightly and grasped Eponine's finger, not able to reach around it with her own.

Then Eponine did something she hadn't in a while. She smiled.

X

Enjolras pulled a blanket over Eponine as she fell asleep with Cea clutching her finger.

They both looked so peaceful, but he decided to get up even though he really hadn't had much sleep last night because of Cea.

Somehow babies didn't grasp the concept that at night you were meant to sleep. He didn't know when he grew up that he would be more like the child than he first thought.

X

It was coming to evening and les amis sat in the cafe, drinking jus d'orange. Enjolras tapped his foot impatiently. Marius had taken Eponine and Cea out today, and they still weren't back. He was worried.

X

"I told you she hates me!" Marius once again went to hold Cea, who started to scream as he came near, causing Eponine to burst out laughing at his face. She took Cea again who immediately stopped crying and went back to gurgling.

"Maybe its the way your face is?" Eponine said through giggles. "Did the nasty man scare you?"

Cea seemed to glare at Marius, causing him to back away.

"She's a baby, Marius. What harm can she do?"

"She may bare grudges when she's older, and with you as a mother, I dread to think what pain she could inflict." Marius earned himself a playful punch on the arm as they continued to the Musain.

"Well well." Thenardier came from around the corner, a knife glistening in his hand. "Got yourself knocked up did we 'Ponine?"

Eponine held Cea closer as the baby gurgled the language of infants. Marius just seemed to back away, behind them.

"I found her papa." Eponine tried her hardest but she was scared. She was sure Cea could feel her shake. She couldn't defend herself and Cea, let alone all three of them.

"Yeah, a likely story bitch." Thenardier took a step closer. "Where's the money? The sod pay you more for having his baby?"

"Its true, we found her." Marius said in the shakiest voice known to man.

"Shut it boy!" Thenardier made them all jump and Cea began to cry.

"Shhh, shhh." Eponine had to try to console her little girl. She held her closer, rubbing circles and bouncing her slightly. "Its ok."

"Hand the bastard to the boy." Thenardier ordered her. Eponine hesitated. Marius shook his head. "Quickly and quietly girl! Now! Otherwise I'll have two more victims."

Eponine handed Cea to Marius and kissed her on the forehead. Cea began to cry.

Thenardier hit Eponine before she had the time to turn around properly.

"Eponine!" Marius yelled, almost dropping Cea.

"Go! Now Marius." Eponine groaned as her father stood on her as she lay on the ground.

Thenardier pointed the knife at him as he started to back away. "Don't move boy! Or there will be no Eponine tomorrow."

Marius stood still and Cea still cried.

"Get the bitch to shut it." Thenardier stepped closer, Marius took a small step back, holding Cea closer. She started to cry even more. "Hand her to me. NOW!"

Thenardier lunged forwards and grabbed Cea out of his arms and she proceeded to scream. He jolted as he heard the steady hooves of the mounted police. Anger swelled inside of him. He kicked Eponine repeatedly. His daughter whimpered but he wanted to make his mark.

"Why don't you shut up, girl?!" Thenardier sneered at the baby. She cried even more. Thenardier saw red. "I'll make you scream, you'll scream alright!"

He balanced the baby in one arm and took the knife in his other hand, ignoring Eponine's yells for him to stop and Marius' widened eyes. He slowly lowered the tip of the knife to the child's left wrist and from just by the crease of her thumb, etched a vine down her hand and around her wrist twice, over her veins.

He smiled as she screamed and cried as her blood was spilled. Thenardier's head snapped up as the police calls seemed close now. He dropped the crying baby and sprinted down the street.

X

Eponine managed to reach and catch Cea before she hit the ground. Marius was at her side in seconds. Eponine's face was one of horror as Cea's blood stained her hand as it freely flowed from her wrist. Eponine struggled to sit up as pain riddled her.

"Marius, take Cea to the cafe." Eponine pushed the baby in his arms.

"She's hurt badly." Marius was always a little slow. It hadn't hit him yet that Thenardier would hurt a defenceless child.

"I know. Please Marius." Eponine pleaded. She couldn't stand seeing Cea in agony.

"You're hurt too." Marius said, as if she didn't know.

"Just go Marius! I'll make sure the police don't find you two."

In hearing the urgency in her words, Marius looked to her with sorrow in his eyes as he nodded and took off towards the Musain, increasingly concerned that Cea had started to drift away.


	3. Chapter 3

The Amis heads turned as Marius burst into the cafe.

"Hey! Cea isn't crying and Marius is holding her! It's a miracle!" Joked Grantaire.

"I think she's dead."

Everyone fell silent quickly. Joly rushed over and saw all the blood on Marius' shirt and on Cea's clothes. Her pretty light blue dress was stained red, some dried some fresh. None of it good.

"No." Enjolras felt everything go into slow motion. No one was moving fast enough. He couldn't move fast enough.

"Let's go to my father." Joly went to take the baby but Marius held her tight. He followed Joly out.

"Where's Eponine?" Enjolras asked, finally speaking up.

Marius paused on the steps. "She told me to go."

"You left her?!" Courfeyrac was close to yelling. The Amis never left anyone behind. "Was she hurt?"

"We don't have time for this!" Joly yelled as panic set in the Amis. He somehow found order. "Enjolras, come with me and Marius, the rest, go and find 'Ponine. You know where I live. Marius, explain on the way. I fear we may be too late."

Enjolras went to Marius and took Cea's from his arms and held her cold body next to his warm chest. He was close the breaking. "Come on Cea, just a little further."

They ran.

X

Eponine was still on the ground when she heard the police spot her. She was in agony. She could hardly move. She guessed her father had broken a rib or three on the right hand side. She couldn't twist herself to sit up, let alone stand. The police weren't urgently coming to her. She guessed, as always, the shadows hid her from view, like she used them everyday. She remembered the curfew. Surely it was past the time. She could spend a night in the cells for being out so late, like a few weeks ago. She tried to move to get up but it hurt so much. She let out a scream that was silenced and she was startled by the hand over her mouth. She couldn't see their face but the voice was one she knew well, thank goodness.

"I don't think they've seen us yet 'Ponine." Courfeyrac said. "Stay quiet."

"Where does it hurt?" Combeferre's figure came to block her moonlight.

She began to talk but her words came out as muffled, and they were quiet already as she tried to keep the pain from reaching her voice as it had already reached her hazel eyes. Combeferre hit Courfeyrac's hand. "She can't speak with your hand over her mouth!"

"My side. I think it's my ribs." She said, wincing as Combeferre ran his light fingertips over her right side.

"Are you bleeding?" Courfeyrac spotted blood on her ripped chemise.

"No, no it's..." She sat bolt upright, biting her tongue to withhold a scream. "Where's Cea? Is she...?"

Strong arms hooked around hers and slowly lifted her to her feet. She lent on Combeferre mad Courfeyrac as as they helped her walk as quickly as she could to Joly's house.

"We don't know. Let's just get you back first." Combeferre finally spoke up throughout the awkward silence filled with Eponine's shallow breaths of effort to stay standing and not to help in pain every few steps.

It's fair to say that the prospect of losing Cea made her walk faster, despite her injuries.

X

Prouvaire and Grantaire were on watch outside Joly's house. The moonlight added a certain eeriness to the thought that a baby would most certainly die tonight. When Enjolras was finally coaxed into letting Monsieur Joly seeing to Cea, he almost broke down completely.

Monsieur Joly's face was grave as he saw the amount of blood the child had lost, before he went into the back room with his son for assistance. The knife wound wasn't very deep but it had cut twice over her veins and since she was a new born, the skin did not have as many protective layers. The wound was fatal. Enjolras was distraught as Marius tried to calm him the best he could. He had even slipped vodka into his drink to help him relax but nothing was working. He had formed too much of an attachment to the girl to let her go now. Enjolras just kept pacing. Pacing was normal, structured, five steps there, five back. It was methodical, normal, equal. Harming a child was beyond logic, no methods, just hate and a rotten soul. It wasn't normal, nor was stealing a defenceless child's life equal. The beast who did this to her shall pay, Enjolras vowed. Marius was afraid that if Enjolras kept pacing, then he would ware out the floorboards and find himself in Australia.

Lesgles and Feuilly were in he sitting room, bringing fresh hot and cold water to the back room for Monsieur Joly. The carefully obscured the view so Enjolras could never see what was going on in the room. But there was no crying. No crying meant little chance of pulling through. In everyone's mind, Cea was already dead. No one dared say it. Everyone was tense.

Prouvaire glanced off into the distance. They shouldn't be outside after curfew, and he feared that Combeferre and Courfeyrac had been caught by the police, or he feared the worst for Eponine.

"Hey! Is that them?" Grantaire hit his friend who was in a daydream on another planet as he spotted three figures in the distance, advancing slowly. Grantaire was always the strongest of the Amis. He sprinted over to them and in seeing the creeping purple bruising on Eponine's cheek and her eyelids fluttering, struggling to stay awake, he scooped her up into his capable arms. She yelped in pain as he carried her inside.

X

Monsieur Joly could do no more for the poor child. At least she looked as if she were sleeping. Her breaths were small and her chest hardly rising as her heartbeat slowed to just above nothing. Her bright blue eyes never to open to the world again.

He came outside to a commotion of a younger girl being carried in by his sons friend, the incredibly strong one, for a thirteen year old. He quickly ushered the girl into the room and Grantaire left, closing the door behind him. Monsieur Joly looked down upon the girl who was struggling to hold onto consciousness in her dazed state.

"I believe you to be mademoiselle Eponine Thenardier, am I right?" He asked. Regulation questions, he could see a little blood as he parted her hair at the base of her skull, from where she was thrown to the floor by her father.

Eponine's eyelids were rolling but she still managed to make a sentence form in her delusional state. "Is Cea alright? Will she live?"

Monsieur Joly helped her lay back down as she seemed determined to go to the crib the baby was in. With no coordination, and her brain failing to send the signal to her limbs to move she almost collapsed on the ground if Monsieur Joly hadn't been there. He put her back to lay down and watched as soon as her head was on the pillow, her lids closed and she was out of it totally.

X

Enjolras was still pacing as Monsieur Joly came into the main room. Enjolras didn't seem to notice though. He kept muttering under his breath about how he would kill whoever did this to his girl. He didn't even know Eponine had been brought in.

"Well? Will they be ok?" Prouvaire said, setting down a pen as he was trying his hardest to compose a verse or two of a poem to cheer everyone up, but instead he just managed to get ink all down himself as it smeared just under his chin.

"They?" Enjolras was now back in reality.

"You, mon ami failed to notice that we carried Eponine in around a good half hour ago." Grantaire said sternly, scolding Enjolras for not paying attention and thinking about what he would do, not what he should do at the time.

"Can I go..." Enjolras was blocked by Monsieur Joly who stood in front of the door with his arms folded across his chest as he looked down upon the young boy.

"My boy, she is resting from her bruised and one broken rib. She is also sure to have a nasty bruise on he cheek for weeks to come but she needs to rest and so do you." Monsieur Joly steered Enjolras away from the door and into the lounge where Joly and Feuilly had set up nine beds out of cushions, pillows ans blankets.

"How is Cea?" Grantaire dared to ask the question. Monsieur Joly was always professional, but even he could not look the nine boys in the eyes as they were so full of hope. What should they know of tragedy and loss?

"If I am honest, her chances are microscopic. She is but not a week old, I'm sorry." He couldn't even bare to look at their faces as he went to the kitchen.

"Can I be with her when she goes?" Monsieur Joly turned around to face Enjolras looking up at him. The boy was calmly furious, and his ice cold eyes showed it. "She needs comforting, and not to be left alone. I shall hand her over to God myself."

Monsieur Joly smiled and patted the boys shoulder and ruffled his blonde curls. "Of course, but I do believe there is no God if he should rob an innocent of her life just after five days of giving it too her."

Enjolras smiled gratefully as he snuck into the room. His eyes adjusted to the dim candle in the corner next to the bed where he went to. He looked down on Eponine as she looked so peaceful in her slumber. He carefully brushed the hair that had fallen in her face away and smiled to himself. All she needed was to avoid home, decent food and a bit of tender love and care and she would be fine. She also needed a new family, but what were the Amis for? Maybe when he was older, had a flat of his own, he would keep a room or two spare for Eponine, if she ever wanted a permanent home to stay in. He told himself he would. He went over to the crib by the side of the bed and peered into it. Cea was sleeping but her breaths never heard. Enjolras touched her tiny wrist and there was no pulse. His girl was gone. A single tear made a path down his cheek. He didn't bother to wipe it away. No one was here to see him cry. She deserved his tears, she was young, too young.

"There can be miracles if you believe." He sang what his mother had sung to him when he believed his world had come to an end many times when he was in singlefigured ages. He clutched her hand as he knelt by the crib "Though hope is rare, it's hard to kill."

"Who knows what miracles, you can achieve when you believe? Somehow you will. You will when you believe." Enjolras turned to face Marius who had joined him. This one baby had touched them all. Five days they had know her, and now, all nine boys and Monsieur Joly stood and could do nothing as her life was taken by the cruelty that is death itself.

"They don't always happen when you ask for them." Joly said as his father put and arm around him. Joly had prayed for hours every morning and evening, often falling asleep in the pews in Notre Dame, when his mother, Madame Joly was ill. They did all they could and both father and son prayed for a miracle to happen. They had accepted that Annette's time had come, and knew she was watching them, hopefully making a deal with God (if there was one as they had all begun to doubt now) to save Cea and let her live.

"And it's easy to give in to your fears." Lesgles was always one for a laugh. He could never give into his fears as his bad luck he cherished almost as a gift. He quite literally expected the unexpected, and if the unexpected was Cea living, then he told himself that it would happen. Against all odds, she would live, she had too.

"But when you're blinded by your pain," Prouvaire's poet came out in him even though the lullaby was known to all the Amis, he gave it a slight edge as to actually create some faith in them all, to replace what they had lost. He should have brought his flute along with him to relieve the tension, and to calm everyone and give Cea a proper send off.

"Can't see your way straight through the rain." Grantaire managed to create a murmur of laughter. They all knew that he liked the rain, as in his so called 'scribbles' he could catch the light perfectly in the dew, or the drops as they fell and settled. He loved to juxtapose the look of the rain, usually connotations sadness in paintings with the sight of children playing in the puddles, or a smiling face, or even a delicate tree blossoming and flowering as the leaves are smothered with a light coating of fresh dew.

"A small but still resilient voice says," Feuilly wouldn't except it. He had to believe. All those ears ago, before he managed to get a scholarship when he was ten under General Lamarque's guidance, he was on his own, an orphan, like Cea. He had never given up, not even once, if he did then he would not be here right now. But Cea wasn't the one who had given up, it was whoever stole her life from her. He prayed they would have a heart and give it back to her. Some God on high should hear his prayer.

They all knew the song well. It was perfect for a goodbye, but all of them combined were not saying goodbye yet. "Hope is very near."

At that precise moment, the last syllable had echoed through the room. A new sound filled the ears of ten people who stood, one holding a baby. A gasp escaped the lips of Enjolras.

Her blue eyes opened to the world.

Enjolras froze as she stared deep into his widened eyes as he could not believe that she was looking at him. She reached out of the blanket she was wrapped in and her tiny hand reached towards his face, hers smiling, fascinated by his golden curly hair. He let her grip his finger, her tiny ones not reaching around it properly. Her touch was soft and light, but cold. Enjolras held her closer. The rest of the Amis were about to cheer in seeing their girl back to her baby self, but left, I'm seeing the relief cross Enjolras' face as he smiled warming and pulled her closer to his chest, supporting her tiny head in the crook of his elbow. It was just him and his girl.

"Mon petite Mireya." He whispered, rocking her and planting a gentle kiss on her forehead as she relaxed fully in his arms and tugged at her blanket with her delicate fingers.

"Miracle in Spanish?" A voice croaked from the bed in the corner of the room. It was hoarse and sounded old but to give the girl a chance, she had been unconscious for a couple of hours.

"'Ponine you're awake!"

She rolled her eyes in his joy that she seemed fine. Her pain had subsided a little but she knew hat Monsieur Joly had given her something strong until her ribs had started to heal, as they would never properly reset. "No, I'm dead."

"Don't even joke about that." He told her sternly. The scowl at Eponine didn't last for very long, as Cea caught both of their eyes as she yawned and murmured the incoherent speech that was baby language.

Enjolras sat on the edge of Eponine's bed as she, with great effort and determination, sat up as he carefully passed Cea to her, and she rocked her gently to sleep, Cea smiling and holding her blanket in her fingers as she dreamed her dreams. Eponine smiled down at her, mimicking Enjolras as they were glad that she was their Mireya.

If someone ever looked down on the scene before us, if the two foster parents of this girl were older by around five years at the least, they would have thought two people had just become parents and were basking in their own joy as they got their child soundly asleep for the first time. They way the boy sat close to the girl, as if he should put his arm around her shoulder, as she sat rocking the child in her slumber. The way the girl seemed to turn into him, as if ready to place her head on his shoulder as they both smiled softly and watched the infant contently together for the rest of their lives.

**R and r please? G xxx**


	4. Chapter 4

Enjolras left the room once he had put Cea to bed properly. Eponine was now asleep again and Monsieur Joly had informed them that she had stitches at the base of her skull and probably concussion from her beating.

"She can't stay at home, or on the streets." Enjolras said.

"I can assure you she won't be going anywhere soon." Monsieur Joly had insisted that for her protection, she stayed with him as Joly was given students quarters at the university until he finished his studies. That would be a long time as they were only 13.

But Eponine being Eponine, as soon as the idea was proposed the very next morning, she outright refused.

"I know my way around." She protested, swinging her legs out of the bed she was on and making a beeline for the door to the bedroom. Grantaire slammed it and stood in front of it, crossing his arms and looking down at her. She huffed and turned to Marius who ran his fingers through his hair. "You can't keep me here forever."

"We can damn well try." Courfeyrac muttered under his breath, earning and glare from Marius as he knew he wasn't helping in the slightest.

"Please 'Ponine." Marius pleaded with her. "You can stay with me."

He took her hand and she fought to keep the smile from her face as his touch sent a tingle through her body and made her stomach lurch and heart beat faster. "No."

"It's the concussion speaking." Grantaire concluded.

"'Ponine, please." Marius was getting more forceful. "Your father is just going to hurt you more."

"What do you know about it Marius? When I first met you, you were singing songs and praises about my father, saying how he's a hero, a great man for saving your fathers life. Oh, I must be so honoured to be his daughter! Is this what a 'great man' who's worth 'honouring' does?" She yelled at him.

"Eponine." Marius raised his voice also. She was in trouble now. He called her Eponine. "We're all looking out for you. We're your friends. I'm sorry my first impression was wrong, but excuse me when I say your father is a little deceptive."

Courfeyrac took Cea up as she began to cry from the shouting. He rocked her and shushed her but she could somehow sense Eponine was upset and it made her cry more. Grantaire opened the door and Courfeyrac took Cea outside where hopefully Enjolras could sooth her and comfort her.

"I do not need looking after Marius! I look after my younger brother, he's been ill, I cannot and will not leave him at the mercy of my family, there is none! He needs me and I intend to be there until he gets better. He's but that high." She motioned with her hand to just below a metre. "If I run away he'll die."

The thought of losing Gavroche made Eponine's head spin and from the shouting gave her a bad headache. Her eyes couldn't keep in contact with Marius' and Grantaire could see that. He went over to Eponine and led her to the bed and helped her sit down.

"I think you should rest. We'll sort something out." Grantaire said, making her lie down and soon enough she was asleep again. He pulled a blanket over her and moved her hair from her face as he sat on the edge of her bed. He looked to Marius who was staring at Eponine and sighed. "Come on, she needs to sleep it off."

He got up and they both headed to the door. Grantaire held it open and Marius slipped out. "I know what'll cheer you up, if you can hold Cea without her crying!"

Marius glared at Grantaire as they shut the door behind them and then both smirked at each other. They joined the Amis who were sat around in Joly's sitting room. Marius sat cross legged on the and Grantaire flopped onto his back on the floor.

"I take it she still refused?" Joly asked Grantaire who groaned in response. They had all tried and now their mission to get Eponine to stay with one of them was a total and utter failure.

"Enjolras has tried as well, he even used Cea to persuade her but she still said no." Feuilly added, emerging from the kitchen. They all sighed. They had truly given up on Eponine. She was a handful. "I only hope Cea doesn't turn out like her."

"God help us if she does. One Eponine is a handful, but two would mean the end of the world as we know it!" Courfeyrac exclaimed. He was slightly exaggerating but everyone agreed.

"Nah, she's not that much of a handful." Prouvaire said, rocking Cea gently in his arms as she was fascinated by the colour of his hair. Her huge blue eyes gazed at him smiling and then smiled back at him, making his grin wider.

"Of course not, she's a baby!" Grantaire pointed out. "Duh."

"Annie." Prouvaire whispered. He looked up to see the Amis staring at him as if he had grown another head. "It means blessed. It suits her."

"Then it shall be her middle name." Enjolras said, the Amis smiled. Cea was becoming one of the family. "Consider her the youngest ami."

X

Once again, it was early morning a few days later, and only Joly, Courfeyrac, Monsieur Joly, Enjolras, Cea and Eponine were in the house.

They were sat in kitchen and Enjolras was hunched over papers and books that he spread over the table, asleep. Monsieur Joly was fixing some breakfast for them before he had to attend some house calls on his morning rounds. Joly was changing the bandages on Cea's tiny wrist, checking the stitches that would form a a nasty scar when she was older. Courfeyrac, was attempting to feed Cea some bread soaked in milk and honey to soften it. She couldn't be breast fed because there was none. So soft bread and normal milk was what she was eating. Monsieur Joly, or his son were present, so they made sure she didn't choke.

Yet again, Courfeyrac had managed to get her food on her cheeks.

"You're meant to put it in her mouth, not all over her face." Joly said, taking the cloth and wiping Cea's face for what seemed like the twentieth time in two minutes. "She's not going to bit your hand off."

"And how do you know that?" Courfeyrac raised a quizzical eyebrow at his friend who sighed and looked up from checking the baby's arm. He just stared at Courfeyrac because the answer was obvious.

"She doesn't have any teeth you muppet."

Courfeyrac smirked at Joly not hinting at his sarcasm and went back to his poor attempt at feeding her. Joly finally re bandaged her stitches and gave her hand a little tickle which she squealed at, making him smile. When Courfeyrac was finally done, and Cea had refused to eat any more, Monsieur Joly handed him a small bottle full of warm milk he had heated in the pan. Luckily, Courfeyrac was better with the milk as she seemed to grasp hold of the bottle as she gulped it all down.

"Huh?" Enjolras' head snapped up as he rubbed his eyes, peeling the paper off his face.

"I think you need to go home and sleep properly, Enjolras." Monsieur Joly said collecting his medical equipment from his son.

"I was up with Cea." He protested.

"You and I both know full well, as well as everyone else who stayed the night, that Cea slept all through the night. You were just watching her sleep." Monsieur Joly retorted, throwing Enjolras' coat at him as he himself clicked his briefcase shut. "Pack your things Enjolras, I'm walking you back to your halls of residence where you will rest and not overwork yourself on your days off from studies.

Enjolras groaned and went to turn down his order but the look of Cea being perfectly happy with Courfeyrac, and then the look on Monsieur Joly's face, he thought against it and grumbled as he packed up his papers and books, put his coat on and headed out into the particularly windy summer morning with Monsieur Joly.

X

Grantaire was on his was to Joly's house, with some things he had picked up from his father. When he had told him about Cea, his father bought out a box full of baby things. His mother had saved all the blanket and clothes and carrier and bottles for Grantaire when he started a family of his own someday. His father gladly gave it to him and knew his wife would want Cea to have. He was now humming to himself as he walked the Parisian streets with his bag slung over his shoulder. He was walking through the market place when a hand dipped into his pocket and removed some of his coins. As he was always fast on his feet, Grantaire took off after the boy with a brown cap pulled down low over his face and long beige coat flapping behind him. Grantaire thought that a pickpocket should be able to run faster and as he neared his assailant, he heard the laboured breathing and strain in the pants.

Grantaire reached out with his nimble fingers and grasped the boys wrist tightly and spun the robber around to face him in the narrow alleyway. The boy fought back but Grantaire was stronger, as the boy tried to pull away, Grantaire pulled him back to him and ripped the cap from the boys head.

Brown curls tumbled down over the shoulders of the pickpocket and her eyes dropped down to the floor.

"Right, come on." Grantaire didn't let go of her wrist but she tried to fight against him as he dragged her to Joly's house, where she should be.

"Please Grantaire!" Eponine said as she dug her heels into the ground. "My brother needs me."

Grantaire didn't want to hear it. She was hurt badly three days ago and shouldn't be up and about. He knew that she knew that her father could catch her at any time and beat her to oblivion, and yet she still snuck out. In feeling her struggle more and hold onto anything with her free hand, Grantaire huffed, and still with a firm grip on her wrist, moved behind her and gave her a forceful push to get her moving and placed his other hand around her waist. When she next tried to object to being dragged against her will back to Joly's house, he dug his fingers into her side and she jumped a mile in pain and he knew he had hit the spot.

"I suggest you walk, instead of me pulling you then Eponine." Grantaire told her coldly. He wasn't above causing her slight pain because he knew it would be better for her in the long run.

Eponine still seemed reluctant and was reminded every so often that she was slowing down by a small jab in her side. She glared at Grantaire every time he did this to her and was slightly relieved when he saw Joly's house. Grantaire knocked on the door and impatiently tapped his foot as he heard Joly come and open it.

"Hello Gra- Eponine?" Joly stared at her as he moved aside and Grantaire all but pushed her inside and she stumbled as little. Joly was dazed as he locked the front door and turned around as Courfeyrac and Marius came out of the kitchen. "But I thought you were asleep in the back-room?"

"So did I, until she tried to steal from me." Grantaire said. Eponine glared at the ground.

"Eponine, we're trying to help you." Marius said.

"And I'm trying to help my brother." Eponine looked at her best friend straight in the eyes. "I couldn't find him today. I'm scared he's-" She took off and headed quickly for the bathroom, pushing past Grantaire and unceremoniously, emptied the contents of her stomach into a bucket.

In an instance, Marius was by her side, holding back her hair and rubbing circles on her back. Joly tutted and told Courfeyrac to take Cea into the living room, away from the mess and commotion.

"This is what worry, concussion and strenuous exercise with broken ribs does. I don't think it's the first time she's snuck out. She's doing more harm to herself." Joly told Grantaire. They helped Marius pull her coat off her and remove her shoes and then helped her upstairs (so she was less likely to jump out of the window and into the streets) and into bed. She needed to rest properly.

"Where is your brother likely to be?" Grantaire asked as she seemed to be almost off to sleep.

"The elephant, he lives there. Or pick pocketing. He loves the bakery. He has a small group of street urchins. Or maybe try the coaches. He likes bothering the bourgeois in them." Eponine replied softly, her eyes closed. Her breathes became shallower and regular and she was in a deep sleep. Just what she needed.

"Stay with her, make sure she doesn't do anything stupid. We'll go find her brother and bring him here, if what she says is true and he does have the flu." Joly told Marius.

**please r and r and please spread the word that I'm continuing someone else's work because I think people who used to follow this fanfic don't know I've continued it. Love G xxx**


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